The Study

A pair of psychology/psychiatry researchers, one from each of the universities, looked at 124 men who were enrolled in a treatment intervention study for domestic violence. The men in their study, who had engaged in domestic violence against a partner in the last 3 months, were asked to estimate the percentage of men who had ever engaged in seven different forms of abuse:

throwing something at a partner that could hurt

pushing, grabbing, or shoving a partner

slapping or hitting

choking

beating up a partner

threatening a partner with a gun

forcing a partner have sex when they did not want to.

The researchers compared their estimates to the number of men who actually engaged in such abusive behaviors. For all seven of the abusive behaviors, the 124 men overestimated how much domestic violence actually occurs – sometimes twice or three times the actual rates.

But What Came First, Beliefs Or Behaviors?

One limitation of the study is its focus on men who already have a history of domestic violence. Future research could explore the link between these beliefs about the prevalence of domestic violence and actually engaging in domestic violence, possibly through a long-term study on beliefs and behaviors of a sample of boys through adulthood. One possibility is that men who engage in these violent behaviors attempt to justify their behavior by attempting to encourage others (and, possibly themselves) to believe that domestic violence is common – “every man does it.” These findings are important nonetheless, as they help us to better understand who engages in domestic violence and, to some extent, why.

Dr. Eric Anthony Grollman received his PhD in sociology at Indiana University. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Richmond. Dr. Grollman's research interests lie in medical sociology, social psychology, sexualities, and race/gender/class. You can see his personal blog at http://egrollman.com.More posts by this author »